ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN & INSTALL

Departure Restaurant: Environmental Design & Install

EXPLORE DESTINATIONS UNKNOWN

A collaboration with Skylab Architecture, we extended the design concept for the dining experience—“Towards Destinations Unknown”—into a series of graphic 3D installations in Portland, Oregon and Denver, Colorado.

Lightbox mural of an abstracted and mirrored aerial topographical view displayed on a gently angled wood paneled wall behind set tables in the restaurant.

Travel By Air

Each visit to Departure offers a new experience. In Denver, we travel by air, shown through illuminated flight paths, topographic artistry, and an unexpected peek into travelers’ luggage (oh, the stories they tell).

Illuminated flight paths over a dark panel on a wall above a leather and wood booth.

Detail of a backlit mural of x-rayed luggage, revealing surprising contents like a briefcase full of cassette tapes, a teddy bear with a knife inside, a suitcase full of sea creatures, and another full of kids toys.

A second lightbox mural of an abstracted topographical view displayed on a gently angled wall behind set tables in the restaurant.

Travel By Sea

In Portland, we travel by sea, where a montage of nautical maps create an unknown land with irreverent names like Urge Island, Frantic Sound, Jimmy Cliff, Scared Strait and Sea of Love. A nod to nautical wayfinding, rubber tubing creates dimensional shadow play and maps feature color treatments reminiscent of Japanese printmaking.

A detail of Breezy Island depicted on a map, with orange tubing criss-crossing over top.

One of the wall maps features locations around Frantic Sound, including Nifty Trench, Keen Island, Sanctity Reef, and Wicked Shore. Seven orange cords fan over top, angled so they meet at a point on the right side.

The dining room with light-colored leather booths, dark wood, and the fanciful nautical maps filling the walls.

Surprise and delight, then repeat.

Extending the design concept into environmental graphics is a gimme. The unexpected? Multiple levels of read and something to discover every visit.

A private dining booth in a small room filled, walls and ceiling, with backlit imagery of x-rayed luggage revealing items for things such as bank-robbing, wood-working, or traveling with a dog. The shade of a black pendant light reflects the x-rays and warm, dark wood paneling of the room.